Being A Good Storyteller

tim-cain storytelling narrative-design tabletop-rpg dming oral-storytelling speech-therapy

Abstract

Problem: What makes someone a good storyteller, and can the skill be learned?

Approach: Tim Cain reflects on why people have consistently told him he's a good storyteller — from high school gaming sessions to Interplay lunch tables to UCI lectures — and identifies three contributing factors.

Findings: Tim attributes his storytelling ability to (1) genetics — his gregarious father and patient, articulate mother, (2) childhood speech therapy that taught him vocal projection, word choice, and narration skills, and (3) years of DMing tabletop RPGs where immediate player feedback taught him story beats, pacing, and tension. Notably, his skill is specifically oral — his written work (memoir, pandemic novel) has been received as dry and boring.

Key insight: DMing tabletop RPGs is the most actionable path to becoming a good oral storyteller — the immediate feedback loop from players teaches story beats, pacing, and rhythm far more effectively than written storytelling.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p33mPU5ayjk

1. The Observation: Oral vs Written

Tim has been told he's a good storyteller throughout his life — in high school and college gaming sessions, at Interplay lunches, and teaching at UCI (where students called his Thursday lectures "Tim Cain Story Hour"). However, this praise applies exclusively to his spoken stories. When he's tried writing — his memoir, a book during the pandemic — the feedback has been that it's dry and boring. Even reading his memoir aloud on video worked well, but the written text alone didn't land. There's something specifically about the oral delivery that makes it work.

2. Factor 1: Genetics

Tim's father Richard ("Dick") Cain was super gregarious — he knew all the neighbors, his co-workers, belonged to the Touchdown Club in DC, and worked in public relations at Western Union. Everyone knew him. Tim's mother was the opposite: quiet, patient, and very smart. She couldn't physically discipline her five children due to severe arthritis, so instead she explained things carefully — why you can't bring a dog to the grocery store, why you need to use a lower voice when you're not at home.

Tim believes he inherited complementary traits from both: from his dad, the talkativeness and happy confidence; from his mom, the ability to read people and explain things clearly. He thinks this is genuinely genetic rather than learned, since his parents divorced when he was in elementary school and he doesn't have many memories of his dad from early childhood — yet his cousins say he acts and looks like both parents.

3. Factor 2: Speech Therapy

Tim had a significant speech impediment in elementary school — he couldn't say S's, R's, or certain consonant combinations. It was so pronounced that people thought he was from another country (apparently he sounded Welsh). His speech therapist's first question was whether his parents were immigrants.

He attended speech therapy several times a week for years. The therapist would have him just talk — tell stories about his weekend, the National Zoo, whatever — and she noticed that Tim would instinctively swap words to avoid difficult sounds (saying "ship" instead of "rocket" or "spaceship"). She'd then have him read from books specifically designed to be packed with those troublesome letters ("Ricky and His Red Retro Rocket" — a book Tim hated).

The therapist also encouraged Tim to sign up as the narrator in school plays, which he continued even after speech therapy ended. While this didn't teach storytelling directly, it taught him how to project, how to speak naturally rather than just reading from a page — foundational skills for oral storytelling.

4. Factor 3: DMing Tabletop RPGs

Starting in early high school, Tim played enormous amounts of D&D and other tabletop RPGs — through high school, college, and his professional career at Interplay and Troika. He was usually the DM, initially because he was the one who knew the rules, but later because people enjoyed his stories.

Tim understood intuitively that the DM's job wasn't to try to kill the players — it was to tell a good story. The players should feel tension and a fear of death, but the game should be fun, sometimes funny, with proper story beats: combat followed by exploration followed by NPC conversations, all flowing naturally.

The key advantage of DMing over writing: immediate feedback. You can see in real-time whether your players are engaged, bored, or excited. This direct feedback loop taught Tim story beats, pacing, and the ebb and flow of narrative rhythm far more effectively than writing on paper and waiting for reactions.

5. Practical Takeaway

Tim acknowledges that two of his three factors aren't replicable — you can't change your genetics, and you can't get speech therapy without an impediment. But the third factor is entirely actionable: run tabletop games. DM for a group, try to tell good stories, seek constructive feedback from your players, and learn to vary your story content, pacing, and rhythm. Tim believes that becoming a good tabletop DM is a genuine path to becoming a good oral storyteller.

6. References